Her Time Of Need
by Bonnie Sveen Fan
Summary: Following the disaster at her wedding day, an old friend returns to try to support her. Zoe's POV. Rated T for character death.


**Reading everyone's attempts at what possibly will happen on Max's and Zoe's wedding day, inspired me to write this.**

 **Sorry, for any spelling and grammar mistakes.**

 **I hope you enjoy it.**

 **For, those of you who are waiting for an update on "ED Explosion " it should be up soon. Hope that everyone enjoys Casualty tonight.**

 **There is a wedding service in this (obviously ) and I know it's long, but I couldn't find a way to cut it down.**

* * *

Her Time Of Need. 

I was in a state of shock. This was meant to be my wedding day. But it had turned in to chaos. Just as Max and I were prounouced husband and wife, an explosion ripped through the church. Colleagues screamed and tried to get out, but it all happened so fast.

Let me tell you what happened, a few hours earlier...

 _Flashback._

_I was in my house, Robyn and Rita had come around to help me get ready while Max had gone to Lofty's house where Cal also was. Rita was doing my make up._

 _When, she had finished, I stood up, to see what I was wearing._

 _I wore a full length gown and my hair was curled. On, my feet, I wore a pair of white heels, I might change in to a flats for the reception, but you know me, I loved my heels!_

 _I turned to Rita. "thanks "_

 _The smaller nurse nodded as we all go downstairs._

 _I walked up the alsle on Charlie's arm, I'd asked my father but he was ill and I didn't want to make him worse. So, I asked Charlie, who was like a surrogate dad to me._

 _"Love is the reason we are here" Smiled the vicar. "In marriage we not only say "I love you today," but also, "I promise to love you for all our tomorrow's. "_

 _"Max and Zoe, in the days ahead of you, there will be stormy times and good times, times of conflict, and times of joy. I ask you to remember this advice:_

 _Never go to bed angry._

 _Let your love be stronger than your anger._

 _Learn the wisdom of comprise, for it is better to bend than to break._

 _Believe the best of your beloved rather than the worst._

 _Confide in your partner and ask for help when you need it._

 _Remember that true friendship is the basis for any lasting relationship._

 _Give your spouse the same courtesies and kindness you bestow on your friends._

 _Say "I love you" every day._

 _Now, it was time for us to say our vows._

 _"Max and Zoe " The vicar said. "I remind you, that marriage is a precious gift, a lifelong commitment, and a challenge to love one another more completely each and every day. "_

 _"Please join hands and look in to each other's eyes "_

 _Max took Zoe's hands in his._

 _"Max, with this understanding, do you take Zoe to be your wedded wife to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for better, for worse, for richer, for pooer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, and to be faithful only to him, as long as you both shall live?'_

 _"I do" Max said, squeezing Zoe's hands._

 _Now, it was my turn to say my vows._

 _"Zoe, with this understanding, do you take Max to be your wedded husband to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, and to be faithful only to him, as long as you both shall live?'_

 _"I do" Max said, squeezing my hands_

 _"I do " I replied._

 _"Can I have the rings?" The vicar asked._

 _Lofty walked up with the rings._

 _"The ring, an unbroken, never - ending circle, is a symbol of committed unending love "_

 _"Max, as you place the ring on Zoe's finger, repeat these words after me:_

 _"This ring, a gift for you, symbolizes, my desire that you be my wife from this day forward. As this ring has no end and neither does my love for you " Max said as he gently slid the ring on to Zoe's finger._

 _"Zoe as you place the ring on Max's finger, repeat these words after me._

 _I prepared to: "This ring, a gift for you, symbolises my desire that you be my husband from this day forward. As this ring has no end and neither does my love for you " I said softly as I put the ring on his finger._

 _"Max and Zoe, you have consented together in holy matrimony before God, have pledged your vows to each other, and have exchanged rings, as tokens of your love and commitment to each other. In accordance, with the laws of Connecticut, with the authority of God's word, and with great joy, I now pronounce you husband and wife!"_

 _"Congratulations, Mr and Mrs Walker "_

 _As, we kissed, we were unaware of the tragedy that was about to unfold.._

 _There was a big ball of fire coming towards us and it showed no signs of stopping._

 _"Max" I cried._

 _"It'll be ok, Zo" He told me._

 _I nodded._

 _I lay low as I saw Max head towards the church door. I prayed he wasn't going to leave me, I needed him._

 _"Max, I- " My words were cut off as a beam crushed me._

 _Some of the ED were outside. Ethan. Lily. Cal. Rita._

 _"Where's Zoe?" Max asked._

 _Ethan shrugged. "We don't know "_

 _Max ran back inside, yelling my name._

 _"Zoe!"_

 _He'd only went back in to save me. He died a hero._

 _"Are you ok?'" He asked._

 _I looked up at him. I was trapped under a beam. I wanted to think of a sarcastic remark, I did. "Do I look ok?' I asked._

 _"Beautiful " He replies and later, I realised, that they were his last words to me._

 _Max tried to lift it off me, but he couldn't do it alone._

 _He finally managed to shift it and I got out from underneath, but it hurt. Max held his hands out to me and pulls me to my feet._

 _Just as he was helping me too my feet, a second explosion happened. He pushed me out of the way and was ingulfed in a ball of flames._

 _I stared in utter shock._

 _"Zoe?" I hear a voice._

 _I turn around. It was Charlie._

 _I started to sob. "He's gone"_

 _"Alright " Charlie rubs my back reassuringly, only I didn't feel reassured. I kept clutching at my dress, which was ripped and had Max's blood on._

 _I couldn't bare to go back to the house that Max and I had recently brought. Tess said I could go back to hers. We got a taxi back, both of us were sat in stunned silence._

 _Tess gets her keys from her pocket and opens the door. I hear a voice. I try to figure our where I've heard it before, but I have no idea. I take a few steps, forward._

 _I hear a voice. It's louder than before. I knew that voice._

 _"Oh, Zoe" she whispers, I hear the pity in her voice._

 _"Jess?" I looked up._

 _She nods at me. "It's ok" She tells me._

 _It was never going to be ok again._

 _I simply cry in to her shoulder. "I loved him" I murmur._

 _"I know, I know" She replies._

 _But how could she know? She'd been in America for the last few years._

 _She explains that she was watching the news when she heard and I nod as we make our way to Tess's front door, she was caught up in the explosion, she suffered a fractured elbow and a laceration across her forehead. Charlie was in hospital, on a ventilator, but he should pull through._

 _I sit down in Tess's living room and Jess sat beside me. I wanted to take the attention off me. Tess was in the kitchen making me, Jess and herself a cup of tea._

 _"How's Adam?" I asked, glancing at a picture of Max and I, our arms wrapped around each other._

 _"He's fine" She tells me. Adam was one of my closest friends, and we even shared a kiss, when he was at the ED, but we both knew it wouldn't go anywhere._

 _"Good " I nod, seeing Tess walk in to the living room. She placed two mugs down on the coffee table and I pick one up. I take a sip and she takes hers as we sit in silence._

 _End of flashback_

* * *

It's a few weeks later and I'm back in the church, which has been rebuilt, where I married Max. Only now I'm burying him. It wasn't fair. We should have been on our honeymoon. He'd booked Paris which I found out about when Robyn was sorting through his things. At work one day, she cornered me in the staff room. I remember:

I'd just called a meeting to say that I would be taking a few weeks off as everything was a little too much.

"Zoe, can I have a word?" Robyn asked.

I sighed.

"when I was clearing out Max's room, I found these " She said.

I frowned as she headed in to the staff room and I followed her. She opened her locker and looked for something. I waited, sitting down on the battered blue couch.

She handed me an envelope which simply had "Zoe" written on the front. I turned he envelope over and put my finger under the seal. I pulled out two first class business tickets for Paris.

I pull myself back to the present. Lofty has his arm around a distraught Robyn and Ethan is sitting on the other side of her until they both have to stand again to lower Max in to the ground,

Lofty and Ethan lower Max in to the ground.

i head in to work after the funeral. Tess tells me it's not a good idea but I need the distraction. I head up to my office and lock myself in.

I stay in there for hours, barely noticing the hours go by as I completed paperwork and more paperwork.

I stand up and I collapsed. Ethan found me. He took me to a cubicle and booked a head CT. The CT come back with bleeding on the brain, I would need to be monitored. He come back in.

"Well?" I demanded.

"Your.. eh, .. pregnant " he stuttered.

I froze. I couldn't have children. "Are you sure?" I asked.

Ethan looked flustered. "Y- yes" He stuttered again, nervously pushing his glasses further up his nose. He then hit me with the news I was 7 months.

Shit. Could I do this without Max? The truth was, I didn't know. I went back to Tess's house and told her what Ethan had told me.

"Congregations " She told me with a small smile.

I put a hand to my stomach where the baby was asleep.

* * *

I'd gone to work where things hadn't gone back to normal. The ED was still in a mess. I sighed.

A few weeks later, with Tess and Jess by my side, I deliver a baby boy. I knew what I wanted to call him.

I felt felt a stinging sensation as he was pulled from me and the doctor she took him off to be cleaned, before she wrapped him in a towel and handed him to me.

"Hello" I whispered, watching in awe as the baby grabbed on to my finger.

"Welcome to the world, Max Junior " I said, kissing his tiny hand. I see Max's cheeky brown eyes reflected in his own. Max would live on through his son. And althrough, he wouldn't be here to see, MJ (Max Junior ) grow up, I knew he would be looking down on us both.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading.**

 **I really, really enjoyed writing this. I'm looking forward to when their wedding plays out on - screen and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think we will lose Tess as it has been confirmed she's leaving.**

 **I know that Jessica returning possibly won't happen, but hey fiction is about writing things we don't see on - screen.**

 **I know that Jess was a bit OC but it was the only way I could get the story to work.**


End file.
